I don’t leave home without my planner.

Something funny happened to me early this summer. I was happily – and a bit obliviously – filling out calendars and making notes in my Blue Sky desk planner when I flipped a page and time ended.

Yes. Time simply ended.

Because this was an academic-year planner, and it only went up to the end of June.

Duh.

Previous to that moment I hadn’t realized that an academic planner ended in June.  I didn’t even bother to flip through it, because I had been so enamored of the pretty, pretty paper.  Lots of ideas flew through my brain then:  Could I live without a paper planner until January?  No.  Could I just go get a new planner at the bookstore?  Not likely – it was May.  Could I use a date-non-specific planner, the kind where you write in the dates?  Certainly not.

Then I remembered I had met one of the owners of dotmine, a company that makes day planners, at BlogHer last year.  She was lovely and inspiring and had offered to send me one of their products but I hadn’t taken her up on the offer because I already had a planner.  Dummy.  In my silly state of plannerlessness, I dug up her card and emailed her my predicament and she came to my rescue at once.  Sarah, everybody.  Mother, business owner, superhero.

With Sarah’s help I chose a previous-year design, the Floating Leaves Family_Time.Mine desk planner (pictured above).  It’s as big as a college-ruled spiral notebook and way more functional.  The pages go from August 2011 through December 2012, which is just right to get me to the end of the year.

The Family_Time.Mine style of planner from dotmine is designed for moms who run a household with children in it who have very busy schedules.  There is a master planner for each season of the year, a two-page spread for each month, and a page for each week with large ruled blocks for every weekday and smaller blocks for weekend days.  And room for jotting down lists in the margins.  Bonus:  there are inspirational quotes printed at the bottom of some pages.  This week’s is surprisingly appropriate for my life:

Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple. -Dr. Seuss

I like that the Family_Time.Mine is reinforced with a clear plastic cover to protect its innards – my planner gets a lot of abuse so this is very helpful.  I tend to make a ton of lists, so I often fill the day’s blocks up with that day’s tasks and cross them off (all in pencil, since it changes so often) and then if I have to make a longer list I use the margins.

Here are some interior views:

For longer notes, like from a phone conversation or something more detailed, I use a different piece of paper or a notebook, because there’s not much space for notes in this planner, maybe a page or two.  In fact, there is a big section at the back for things like lists for the babysitter, or address book type entries, which I don’t use in paper format anymore at all.  All my contacts are in my phone or my Google account.  I am beyond sitting down and copying names, addresses, and phone numbers once a year into my planner.  So I just used that space for more notes and lists!

For this coming calendar year I will probably pick a different style, because I haven’t used it much so far for the kids’ school information. That stuff I keep haphazardly in a green desk basket on the kitchen counter, or on the corkboard, or in my head.  So obviously, I don’t need to organize it.  Haha.

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Here is the latest from dotmine Planners:

“Once again, we’re honored to partner with the Young Survival Coalition (YSC), the premier global organization dedicated to the critical issues unique to young women who are diagnosed with breast cancer. YSC offers resources, connections and outreach so women feel supported, empowered and hopeful. More information atwww.youngsurvival.org.

This month, we’ll proudly donate 40% of our profits on all pink planners at www.timemine.com.

And, to help you help us help YSC (did you follow that?), we’ll give you an extra 20% off time.mine Preppy Party Girl, life_time.mine Moor Pink and family_time.mine Elle’s Pick. Use discount code PINK12 at checkout.”

I received a complimentary day planner to facilitate this feature.  In other words, Sarah saved my sanity.